I just recently got 2.6 working and thought i should shere my experiance with the community.

first of all, note that moving between kernel branches is different than moving between minor version numbers, modules for example are handled differently so you're going to need module-init-tools lucky for you gentoo gets these for you,

Code:

emerge sys-kernel/development-sources

this will fetch module-init-tools for you as well as, at time of writing 2.6.0_beta2

While waiting for the kernel to emerge i'm going to explain a bit more about how module-init-tools work, basically they place the new module-handlers like lsmod to /sbin and move the old one to /sbin/lsmod.old , then those handlers detect what kernel you're using at boot, whether it's 2.4 or 2.5/2.6 and forward the kernel to the appropriate module-tools, this is done transperantly to the user so you can, like i do dual boot between between 2.4 and 2.6 without changing any settings at all.

When the kernel is done emergeing emerge prints some instructions about varius things you must select in the new kernel, which may or may not be selected for you already, also note that the instructions for the 2.4 install are still true but they are as follows:

Quote:

Warning: For your kernel to function properly, there are several
options that you will need to ensure are in the kernel proper -- that
is, they should be enabled and not compiled as modules. You will need
to enable the "Code maturity level options --> Prompt for development
and/or incomplete code/drivers" option to see several of these
selections. Under the "File systems" section, be sure to enable the
"/dev" file system support (note that you don't need to enable the
"/dev/pts file system support" option). You'll also need to enable the
"Virtual Memory Filesystem". Be sure to enable "ReiserFS" if you have
any ReiserFS partitions; the same goes for "Ext3". If you're using
XFS, enable the "SGI XFS filesystem support" option. It's always a
good idea to leave ext2 enabled whether you are using it or not. Also,
most people using IDE hard drives will want to enable the "USE DMA by
default" option; otherwise, your IDE drives may perform very poorly.
Of course, remember to enable "IDE disk" support as well -- otherwise
your kernel won't be able to see your IDE disks.

If you are using hardware RAID you will need to enable a couple more
options in the kernel: For Highpoint RAID controllers select hpt366
chipset support, support for IDE RAID controllers and Highpoint 370
software RAID.For Promise RAID controllers select PROMISE
PDC202{46|62|65|67|68|69|70} support, support for IDE RAID controllers
and Support Promise software RAID (Fasttrak(tm))

If you use PPPoE to connect to Internet, you will need the following
options in the kernel (built-in or as preferably as modules) : "PPP
(point-to-point protocol) support", "PPP support for async serial
ports", "PPP support for sync tty ports". The two compression options
won't harm but are not definitely needed, neither does the "PPP over
Ethernet" option, that might only be used by rp-pppoe when configured
to do kernel mode PPPoE.

If you have an IDE cd burner, then you need to enable SCSI emulation
in the kernel. Turn on "ATA/IDE/MFM/RLL support" ---> "IDE, ATA and
ATAPI Block devices" ---> "SCSI emulation support" (I usually make it
a module), then under "SCSI support" enable "SCSI support", "SCSI
CD-ROM support" and "SCSI generic support" (again, I usually compile
them as modules). If you also choose to use modules, then echo -e
"ide-scsi\nsg\nsr_mod" >> /etc/modules.autoload to have them
automatically added at boot time.

after taking note of these instructions, do make menuconfig or xconfig or something else depending on your taste, after you think you're done it's time to compile the kernel. This is NOT done in the same way as in the 2.4 kernels where you would do:

Code:

make dep && make clean bzImage modules modules_install

but rather like this:

Code:

make && make modules_install

this is because 'make' is now an alias for 'make bzImage modules vmlinux' for more info do a

Code:

make help

or read the docs.

After this it's pretty straightforward if you've ever compiled a 2.4 kernel do a

Though, I want to point out something: the real pain isn't really migrating the kernel, it's migrating the system, i.e., you have to have 2 versions of nvidia-kernel installed, one for each version, then, how to handle the alsa-stuff, if you like to keep the 2.4 kernels running etc.
My 2 cents_________________Config - caught by a chronic disease called tuxmania....

It's also good to make the /usr/src/linux symlink to point to your new kernel(otherwise nvidia-kernel won't find the kernel sources), because the development-sources ebuild just makes a new one called /usr/src/linux-beta, but the mm-sources ebuild does take care of this.

By doing so, I can always see which kernel is which.
Another added benefit is that you just have to add another entry to grub.conf for each new kernel and you can boot into any given version if something fails.

Also, always keep working kernels around until new kernels have been tested thoroughly.

I personally uses mm-sources since they have several scheduling algortithms that you can choose from, elevator, CFQ or deadline.

Erik_________________'Yes, Firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'

Another question, has someone successfully gotten wlan with the 2.6 kernels to work ?. The modules (yenta-socket, hermes, orinoco, orinoco_cs) load with no problem, but no eth0, or wlan0 interface shows up for me :/_________________e = pi = 3
breakmygentoo

i'm right now trying 2.6.0-beta2 but in one fact the old 2.4. documentation is wrong -> in 2.6.0 the HighPoint RAID driver is missing, the controller driver is there but not the softraid support.
if someone knows more than me in this case or if i'm just extremly blind i'd appreciate any help...

Well yeah, the modules are integrated... but they still need a boot script to load the modules, etc...

How can I get that?

Bye,
DrZ

I just compiled ALSA into my kernel. After quickly checking what the help menus in menuconfig say, it seems that they didn't give any module names to load for ALSA. But, if you compile it into your kernel, you won't need any modules autoloaded (which is what /etc/init.d/alsasound does).

Am I right in thinking that if you set up your module aliases properly the kernel will autoload ALSA for you when it needs it?

Otherwise, shove it in modules.autoload or something. Or write your own ALSA module loading script..._________________Your Gentoo woll sle me sodenly!
I may the beaute of it not sustene
(to misquote Chaucer)

Another question, has someone successfully gotten wlan with the 2.6 kernels to work ?. The modules (yenta-socket, hermes, orinoco, orinoco_cs) load with no problem, but no eth0, or wlan0 interface shows up for me :/

No, but I have gotten them to load and connect fine using Knoppix 3.1 or 3.2

Anyone know how 2.6 plays with LVM? I couldn't find the kernel option for LVM like in 2.4 so I'm afraid to ever try it until I hear from someone...

It's in there. You may have to set the experimental flag in the beginning part of the configuration for it to be seen.
I've yet to use it on 2.6, but I've ran across the option half a zillion times, and I have the experimental flag checked.